Transfers of ICE Detainees from theMecklenburg County JailCharlotte, North Carolina

Detainees Transferred

Number last 12 months

195

Out of total detained

284

Facility ranking on transfers

top 43 %

Table 1: Transfers

During the most recent 12 month period for which data are available, a total of
195 detainees were transferred by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
from the Mecklenburg County Jail where they
had been temporarily housed to other facilities. The average
stay for these individuals before their transfer was one day.
The use of this facility for the temporary housing of federal immigration detainees was arranged
through an intergovernmental service agreement (IGSA) under which payments by ICE to another governmental
agency are made for housing federal detainees.
Additional information about the arrangement, including whether a private company may operate the
facility for the government, was not available at the time this report was posted.

Transfers made up 69 percent of the 284 detainees who in one way or
another left this facility during the last 12 months.
This report focuses just on these transfers.
The remaining individuals who departed from the Mecklenburg County Jail last
year actually left ICE detention.
These individuals were deported from the country, released
under supervision while their cases was being decided, or left ICE detention for a variety of other
reasons.
For more information on this facility please see additional TRAC reports in this series.

This report series is based upon analyses conducted by the Transactional Records
Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University of 1.7 million government
records tracking each individual who passed through an ICE detention facility
during fiscal year 2015. This most recent 12 month period for which comprehensive data are
available covers October 2014 through September 2015.
See About the Data.

How This Facility Ranks Nationally

Detainee transfer rankings. The Mecklenburg County Jail was one of 637 facilities
nationwide that housed ICE detainees during the most recent 12 month period. Of these
637, there were 409 facilities that had at least 10 ICE detainee transfers
last year. Excluding those facilities with fewer than 10 transfers, the
Mecklenburg County Jail last year ranked in the top 43 percent nationwide in
the number of individuals it transferred to other ICE facilities.
This means that 43 percent of the locations contributed the same or a
larger numbers of transfers, while 57
percent had a smaller number. See Table 1.

Average length of stay before transfer. Once detainees arrived at the Mecklenburg County Jail their
average length of stay before being transferred on to another ICE facility was one day last year.
Ranking facilities from longest to shortest detention stays for their transfer population,
this average of one day placed Mecklenburg County Jail
in the top 67 percent of all facilities nationwide.
That is, for detainees who are transferred, 67 percent
of ICE detention facilities have the same or longer average stays last year,
while 33 percent of detention facilities had shorter average stays.

Origins and Destinations

Were these detainees arrested locally? Where did those that ended up being
transferred from the Mecklenburg County Jail last year originate?
Information on the place of arrest was not included in the available data ICE
released. However, we can examine whether the Mecklenburg County Jail was
the first ICE facility in which these detainees were held.
According to ICE records, for the vast majority (99 percent) of
these detainees, the Mecklenburg County Jail was the first place they were
sent when they were detained by ICE.
The remaining 1 percent had been
transferred in from another ICE detention facility.

We can also look at how quickly they arrived at this facility after they were
first detained.
A total of 100 percent arrived at the Mecklenburg County Jail at some point
during the very first day they were detained by ICE. This
percentage is also based on an analysis of the most recent 12 months for which
data are available.

How soon did transfers occur? Nationally, the median number of days before an
ICE detainee is transferred to another facility was 1 days last year. That
means that half of all transfers occurred on or before the 1st day,
while half had longer stays before they were transferred on to another ICE facility. Note
that nationally the average stay at an ICE detention facility before an
individual is transferred is longer - 12 days. This is because
while most detainees have relatively short stays before ICE transfers them
elsewhere, sometimes stays are lengthy and these lengthy stays raise the average
to above the median stay.

For the Mecklenburg County Jail last year, the median stay before a detainee
was transferred was one day. This is the same as the national figure.
The average stay before transfers occurred was the same - one day - than the median stay. As noted above,
this figure placed the facility
in the top 67 percent among ICE detention facilities nationwide in the average number of days a detainee spent before he or she was transferred.

Figure 2: Transfer destinations during last 12 months

Where did those transferred get sent? ICE currently has great discretion about
where in the United States transferred detainees are sent. For the period
covered by these data, ICE divided the country into geographic regions or areas
and assigned each to one of 152 document control offices or DCOs for the purpose
of keeping track of detainees. Available data allow us to examine whether the
transfer occurred within the same DCO or the transfer was to a different DCO.
For the nation as a whole during the latest 12 months, 54 percent
were within the same DCO, while the remaining 46 percent were to a
different DCO.

Transfers

Facility Profile

U.S OverallProfile (%)

Number

Percent

Within region (DCO)

196

100%

54%

Outside region (DCO)

0

0.0%

46%

Total

196

100%

100%

Table 3: Transfer destinations during last 12 months

Figure 2 and accompanying Table 3 provide some comparative figures for how the
Mecklenburg County Jail stacks up against this national pattern.
Last year, all of the transfers from the Mecklenburg County Jail were to locations in the same
region -- facilities under the control of same ICE docket control office.
Thus, for none of these detainees, the transfers went to detention facilities in a different region (DCO).

Nationalities

Which nationalities predominate? Last year in the United States, individuals
from Mexico comprised the largest number of those transferred by ICE. Some 41.3
percent of all transfers recorded Mexico as their country of origin.
The Mecklenburg County Jail had a large proportion of detainees from Mexico - 61 percent - among their transfers.
Detainees from Mexico were also the largest single nationality group among the transfers at the facility.

Figure 3: Transfers by nationality

In descending order,
the top nationalities that made up transfers from the Mecklenburg County Jail last year were:
Mexico (61%)
, Honduras (16%), El Salvador (7%), Guatemala (4%) and Jamaica (3%).

For the frequency for each of the nationalities within the top 10 among transfers from the Mecklenburg County Jail last year see Table 4.